


Silk

by RedTeamShark



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Agender Character, F/M, Gen, Image Inspired Fic, Repetitive Motion Stims, Stimming, Tactile Stims, autistic characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-27 08:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12077679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: Sharkface looks at her hair, then at their hands. “I have paint on me.”“And charcoal.”“And wood glue.”





	Silk

**Author's Note:**

> [Picture](http://capicadadraws.tumblr.com/post/136729394364/for-confessionforanothertime-and-redteamshark)
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> I'm allistic and while I had plenty of help from autistic friends while writing this, I'm always open to changing if something I've written seems grossly wrong.

It’s not a good day for them. It’s a day where they paint, and paint, and paint. They jump from one project to the next, one medium to the next. Charcoal spraypaint acrylics none of it is right.

“Shark?” Carolina leans in the door, one hand creeping towards her mouth, ragged nails settling against her lower lip. “Are you okay?”

“Yes maybe no I don’t–there’s nothing I can _do_ today.” They gesture at their half-finished projects with their hammer. “None of it is _working_ and everything is happening too _fast_ my brain won’t stop even when I’m–I’m–I’m–” 

“Trying?” she offers, stepping into the room and setting her hands over their shoulders, not quite touching them. Not today. “If paint doesn’t work, something else might.”

“There _is_ nothing else–”

“What did you do before you painted?”

That makes them stop, finally, makes them look and actually _see_ her. “I…” They look down and her fingers go back to her mouth, teeth gnawing at their ragged edges. “Girlie helped. Girlie let me… let me braid her hair. Tactile. Repetition.”

Carolina smiles, reaching up slowly and pulling her hair from the tie that keeps it back. “My hair’s long enough to braid.”

Sharkface looks at her hair, then at their hands. “I have paint on me.”

“And charcoal.”

“And wood glue.”

They share a smile, leaving the workshop together. Sharkface washes their hands, comes out of the bathroom with a hairbrush and a tie. Together they sit on the floor in the quiet house, a pillow under Carolina’s ankles. Her fingers are out of her mouth, instead stubby nails tugging lightly at a scab on her elbow.

“Sit still,” they whisper, slowly pulling her hair back over her shoulders. They stroke their fingers through it before going for the brush, working through her hair in sections before brushing it all out. They can’t rush this or they’ll hurt her, and if their hands have to be slow, their head has to be slow. The pressure of things that had been building up on them seems to ease with every stroke of the brush.

Sharkface segments Carolina’s hair, combing through fingers through it before slowly beginning to weave it together. Her hair through their fingers is like silk, gliding easily now that it’s been brushed out. They reach forward when her hair is neatly braided, setting their hand on her wrist. “Hairtie?”

Carolina hands it over without looking back and they tie the end of the braid, running their hands up her shoulderblades and then down her arms, finding her fingers not by her mouth or picking at her skin. “That’s better… thank you.”

“I should be thanking you,” she whispers, leaning back into their chest. “Today’s been difficult, but this… this made is easier. Feeling your fingers in my hair… and how close you were to me… it was good.”

“It was…” They tilt their head towards her, kissing her temple lightly. “We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

“What, like every day?” She smiles, tilting her head back and kissing their chin. “Because I could live with that.”

They lean down to meet her lips, grinning. “Every day sounds good to me.”


End file.
